“The courtroom itself is in the middle of the building, there’s no windows, it’s very quiet and serene, even calming,” says Rosenkranz, a New York lawyer who heads the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate litigation practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

The copyright case was one of two oral arguments the court heard Monday while much of the East Coast prepared for Hurricane Sandy.

“I expected it to be empty, but was surprised at the sheer number of people who were there,” Rosenkranz says. “But most of the people I know who were coming from outside D.C. ended up realizing they just couldn’t make it.”

As for Rosenkranz, he expects to be in Washington, D.C., for the near future.

“I’ll get home eventually. I’m most concerned about getting home for Halloween,” he says, adding that he spent Saturday helping make his son’s costume and had planned to make his daughter’s costume this evening. Instead he’ll be going over appellate briefs for Apple, another client, involving smartphone technology.